BLACK OR WHITE: Racism Still Exist in Today’s Schools Ashanti Banks EDU 639 Dr. Miller

Everyone deserves an equal education no more their differences in race, gender, religion, or economic status. Everyone deserves an equal education no more their differences in race, gender, religion, or economic status.

RACISM   Racism is defined as the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others

SEGREGATION   Segregation is defined as a practice or policy of creating separate facilities within the same society for the use of a minority group. When many hear the word segregation, they tend to assume it is just racially motivated. Segregation relates to gender, a person’s religious preference, sexual orientation, and economic status.

HISTORY OF SEGREGATION IN SCHOOLS

  On October 29, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that school districts must end segregation “now and hereafter.” With this unambiguous language, the Court, which now had Thurgood Marshall as a member, left no room for doubt or delay.

HISTORY OF SEGREGATION IN SCHOOLS   Alexander v. Holmes County Board Of Education, which is today is underrated, was a dramatic change from the language of the 1955 decree implementing Brown v. Board of Education, which had required integration of educational facilities “with all deliberate speed.” In many parts of the country, this was interpreted by local school boards as “when you feel comfortable getting around to it.”

THE SAD REALITY OF SCHOOL’S TODAY

SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TODAY   Minorities account for nearly half of the student population in America, and will likely become the majority within the next decade or two, but recent studies show that students across the country are still largely learning in segregated environments; along both racial and economic lines.

SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TODAY   Increasing prevalence of school segregation is most dramatic in the south for black students. More northern states like New York, Illinois and Michigan tend to have the most segregated schools for black students while Washington, Nebraska and Kansas are most integrated. For Latino students, California, New York and Texas have the most segregated environments.

SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TODAY  Schools in the United States are more segregated today than they have been in more than four decades. Millions of non-white students are locked into “dropout factory” high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate, and few are well prepared for college or a future in the US economy.

SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TODAY   According to a new Civil Rights report published at the University of California, Los Angeles, schools in the US are 44 percent non-white, and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public school students in the US. Latinos and blacks, the two largest minority groups, attend schools more segregated today than during the civil rights movement forty years ago.

SEGREGATED SCHOOLS TODAY   Schools in low-income communities remain highly unequal in terms of funding, qualified teachers, and curriculum. The report indicates that schools with high levels of poverty have weaker staffs, fewer high- achieving peers, health and nutrition problems, residential instability, single-parent households, high exposure to crime and gangs, and many other conditions that strongly affect student performance levels.

STARTLING STATISTICS

  Of 8.3 million rural white students, 73 percent attend schools that are 80 to100 percent white.   80 percent of Latino students and 74 percent of black students are in schools where the majority of students are not white.   More specifically, 43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of black attend "intensely segregated schools" where white students comprise 10 percent or less of the student body.

SOLUTIONS

Solution: Identify the need for change   Educators must recognize and demand changes in the racial conditions outside the schools that make their work so much harder. Once they recognize, they must demand that there be a Civil Rights agenda for the schools.

Solution:The Colorblind Approach to Educational Equality   A colorblind approach is one that treats everyone exactly the same with no regard to race, ethnicity, ability/disability, sexual orientation, gender, and social class.

Solution: Work Together   Develop and implement training and support plans to give the nation's teachers the skills they need to better work with students of all backgrounds and to teach with materials and practices that fully recognize the contribution of all cultures and races to the United States.

REFERENCES   Civil Rights Project. (2012, September 20). American Schools Still Heavily Segregated By Race, Income: Civil Rights Project Report. Huffington Post. Retrieved from  more-segregated-today-than-in-the-1950s-source/ more-segregated-today-than-in-the-1950s-source/ more-segregated-today-than-in-the-1950s-source/  -american-history/47437.html#ixzz35njo3L3U -american-history/47437.html#ixzz35njo3L3U -american-history/47437.html#ixzz35njo3L3U

REFERENCES   Street, P. (2007). Segregated Schools. Educational Apartheid in Post-Civil Rights America. UCLA Journal of Education and Information, 3(1), Retrieved from Wardle, F. (2013). Human Relationships and Learning in the Multicultural Environment. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.